Author's Note: Hi to everyone who is reading. Thank you for coming back week after week. MNF
Chapter 33:
Overheard
Saturday, 3 February 1996
"You appear very agitated, Harry," Dr Phillip said as the pair walked. It was a rare snowy day, so both were kitted out in their woollens and a flurry of Warming Spells. The therapist had suggested going to the tea shop, but Harry needed to be moving. Thinking and talking was easier when he was in motion.
"I am a bit," Harry confessed. "Some of my friends, those who had been in the study groups Sirius hired tutors for," he looked to Dr Phillip to make sure he was aware of whom Harry was speaking of. Dr Phillip was nodding and then urged Harry to continue with a nod. "They chose to return, or their parents forced them to go back to Hogwarts and they're not having as good a time nor are they learning as quickly as we had been. I'm worried about them."
"Harry, I doubt they need your worry. Concern perhaps, as they are your friends, but remember, you don't need to take on the world's worries."
"I know," Harry admitted. "It's just hard. I feel like…" Harry sighed and didn't finish his thought, which concerned Dr Phillip. There was so much he wanted to say but he simply couldn't find the words.
"Tell me what your concerns are?" the doctor prompted.
"Well, Susan and Hannah and even Ginny have written about how classes feel so dull," Harry began.
"I can understand that. There are what twenty to twenty-five students in the average Hogwarts class?" Harry nodded at Dr Phillip's question. "You had seven students at your house, correct?"
"Sometimes nine, if the twins were with us. Of course, most of the time they were working with Sirius or Remus on their own, since they want to take their NEWTs this year."
"Harry, teaching seven students who were of a similar mental acuity and interest is far different than teaching a room where you could have someone as advanced as you or Hermione and also have a student like your friend, Ron –"
"Former friend," Harry corrected with some annoyance.
"Yes, your former friend. I can see how, well, to be honest, your friends were spoilt by their experience at your home. Your Pater didn't spare his time or his gold to ensure you have a more advanced and altogether superior education than nearly anyone else in Great Britain, if not all of Europe."
"I know, and I'm grateful to Pater for all he's done and is doing for me," Harry confessed. "I'm just so comfortable in my studies now, I want everyone to be as engaged and excited about learning as I am." Dr Phillip chuckled.
"It is rare to hear a teenager talk about being excited about learning. Most of my adolescent patients complain about school."
"If I were still at Hogwarts, I think I'd be complaining as well." The pair walked further and did not realize they'd picked up a tail. A dark-haired woman bundled in a parka, a heavy scarf with matching mittens and hat and fur-lined boots followed about ten feet behind them.
Harry and Dr Phillip continued to walk and talk, until they came to their favourite bench at the bend in the river. The woman walked past them, sat on the bench on the other side of the clearing and with just the most miniscule amount of her wand poking out beyond her fingers, cast an Amplification Spell on Harry and Dr Phillip. She then slid her wand back up her sleeve and listened intently. She'd use her Pensive later to recall the conversation exactly. It mattered not that the pair in question were speaking in hushed tones, to the woman's ears she heard every syllable as if she were part of their conversation.
"Harry, are there problems at home? I know adjusting to Sirius being married must be hard, but you know you can talk with me about it," Phillip asked.
"Of all the things going wonky in my life, Sirius and Amelia being married is not one of them. I like her, and face it, she's been living in the house since like three days after we moved in. The biggest change is they're sleeping in Pater's room and being honest about it. Their games before they told everyone about their relationship were so funny. Honestly, Pater, you didn't need to go into some silly story about why your shoe was under Amy's bed."
"He did that?"
"Oh, yeah. Like we didn't all figure out they were sleeping with each other at least a month before Amy finally spilled the beans at the dinner table. There was, is, a gentleness in Sirius's treatment of Amy that could have only come from romantic love. The way they touched each other…it was how I wanted to touch Hermione. I'm glad I get to do it now."
"Your relationship with her is good?" Dr Phillip asked in a low-key prodding way.
"Yeah, we were both really interested in each other, but we were afraid to tell the other because it might mess up our friendship. I'm glad I finally had the courage to ask her out because we're still best friends, but now we snog too." Dr Phillip laughed heartily at that.
"Good, you should have the chance to be happy. You do know that, Harry?"
"I know, at least my head knows," Harry confessed. He took a few deep breaths and Phillip knew from being around his patient that Harry would talk when he'd ordered his words. "I sometimes forget that life is good now. I'll wake up and for a moment I don't remember that I'm living in this amazing house with Pater and Amy and Neville, Hermione, Remus and Maia. I think I'm back at my aunt and uncle's place, and I'm in the cupboard and…
"It was so horrible there. I never knew if I should get up and get started on my chores or if I should wait for a sound from another room. Then I debated whether to use the loo or if I was better going out to the rear garden to relieve myself. I was always stressed back then, never knowing if I would get hit or slapped. My body carried so much tension and I was always afraid."
"But you do remember that you're somewhere safe? That you're with people who love you and who would never hurt you intentionally, correct?"
"Yeah, I remember, but sometimes it takes a long while to completely wake up and shake off those chains. It's like the business partner in A Christmas Carol. You know, the one who comes to warn Scrooge about the ghosts? I feel like I'm carrying those type of chains regarding everything that happened before THAT night with me. Even what happened with Riddle weighs me down some days. It's so heavy and I know I'm loved and cared for but there are days…" Harry trailed off as his eyes filled with tears.
"Harry, overcoming abuse like you suffered through is not a quick process. You're going to have good days and bad days. Heck, you're going to have good moments that might morph into bad ones in a snap. It's perfectly normal. You are just like everyone else who has highs and lows in their day; granted some of your lows have been lower than the average person can imagine."
"True, but I've also had some incredible highs too. The day Pater adopted me was exhilarating. The killing of the basilisk was pretty awesome too – of course it nearly killed me so maybe that wasn't such a good day," Harry said and Dr Phillip couldn't hide his shock for a moment.
"Harry, you are full of surprises."
"You don't know the half of it, Doc." They were quiet again, and Harry played with the fraying cuff of the jumper he wore under his pea coat. They were quiet for a long while before Dr Phillip chose to question his charge again.
"Harry, I sense something you're not sharing. I don't want to push you, and you can tell me right now to be quiet and leave it alone and I will, but I'm concerned as it's creating conflict within you. I can feel it."
Harry sighed, thought for a few minutes, and then turned and faced his therapist. "Neville and I made a promise to someone, but I think we were wrong to make it."
"Neville Longbottom, right?"
"Yeah, that's him."
"Who was the promise to and what was it about? You know if someone asked to keep something from your Pater or his grandmother –"
"No, it was to Sirius we made the promise," Harry quickly said. "But I think he extracted the promise from us by playing on my feelings for my first parents and I just feel horrible he …"
"Harry, you're going to need to tell me what is really going on," Dr Phillip said softly and slowly. "Your Pater loves you, and he'd never ask you do something that you truly objected to. Why don't you explain it and leave nothing out."
"It all started in our wandless magic classes with Maia," Harry began his tale. The whole idea had started so innocently, they could help bring plants back from the brink of dying by willing their magic into them. "From there, Neville and I moved on from small plants to things that had been neglected in the greenhouses at the Black's home. It was amazing. We helped revive a tree in the orangery that's now bearing fruit!"
"That's quite the accomplishment," Dr Phillip interjected when Harry stopped to take a breath. The words had tumbled out of him in a torrent and the good doctor couldn't help but get as excited as his patient. "I can hardly see what Sirius's issue would be with this."
"We want to try and blend our magic to help reverse magical spells that have so far been unreversible." Harry said it slowly and Dr Phillip's eyes went wide.
"Harry, even those who do experimental spell damage reversals at St. Mungo's or in the Department of Mysteries will combine their magic," he said. "I can see now why your Pater has extracted this promise from you."
"But…he brought up how it changed him and my dad when they did it accidentally. Now maybe if you weren't planning on it that's something different, but Nev and I would be intentionally blending our magic. There's something very important we want to do and neither of us, nor anybody else thus far, has been able to."
"Harry, I know you and Neville are both magically powerful, but you're delving into a study of magic that people devote their entire lifetimes to and many of those don't survive the experience. Magical horizons and experimental spells can be addictive, in their own way. Some of those who start down this path they turn into…well, they become obsessed with the power."
"That's not us!" Harry angrily whinged, even as the branches of the tree around him moved about, although there was no wind blowing. Across the park, the woman had seen and heard enough. She discretely stood and left the area by the other entrance.
"Harry, please, I implore you to listen to your pater on this matter. I am willing to help you find people who can tutor you in whatever it is you and Neville are trying to accomplish, but please don't proceed on your own."
"At least you're willing to help us," Harry said begrudgingly. "If you will help us find people who can either test our theory or teach us to, I'll keep my promise with Pater."
"Harry, he just wants what's best for you, in everything he does. Father's love their sons in an unconditional way."
"They can, but sometimes it feels like being smothered."
Very early the next morning, The Daily Prophet had a shocking headline, which caused the three men and Hermione who gathered at the small breakfast table to simultaneously sputter coffee, choke on their banana, have tea dribble out the side of their mouth and let a string of profanities lose at the top of his lungs.
"Harry Potter and Neville Longbottom: Are they the New Dark Lords?"
